Tech Nation Cluster Profile: Edinburgh

Following the recent launch of Tech Nation, we will be running a series of profile pieces on each of the digital clusters featured in the report.

The third city profiled in our Tech Nation series is Edinburgh. Scotland’s capital city has a strong startup scene stemming from a variety of factors including world leading universities, a long history of successful software businesses (Cisco, Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon) and high quality of life.

Recently, there have been a number of incredible success stories emerging from Edinburgh, with Skyscanner, FreeAgent and FanDuel all growing fast. Skyscanner are not only a Future Fifty company but they’re also the first Scottish web company to be valued at $1bn and have recently pledged to always have their HQ based in Auld Reekie.

Alongside the great cluster benefits displayed above (amongst the highest of all featured in the report), cost of living was cited by the CEO of Administrate – a software-based business management tool – as important to the vibrant tech scene: “Edinburgh is a great place to live, and cost of living is quite low so you can easily get a company off the ground”.

There are over 17,000 people in digital employment in Edinburgh and local businesses are more likely to seek support from other members of the community than in any other cluster. Furthermore, 82% reported having seen revenue rise in the past year.